Physical growth of children under five years of age in Nchelenge, Zambia: Results from a district survey

Abstract

This study focuses on the physical growth of children aged 0-60 months in Nchelenge District, northeast Zambia. By means of a two-stage clustered and random sampling method, 193 households were selected. Weight, height, and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) of children 0-60 months were measured. Underweight, stunting, and wasting were defined as weight for age, height for age, and weight for height (W/H), respectively, < or = 2 z scores below the median of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population. Among 250 children, prevalence rates of 30% underweight, 69.2% stunting, and 4.4% wasting were found, with the highest rates at age 12- < 24 months. Prevalence of stunting, underweight, and wasting in children aged 0- < 6 months and 6- < 12 months suggested that a substantial proportion of infants were premature and/or small for gestational age. The literature suggests that prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation may be quite common in Africa, and this may have important implications for the interpretation of growth data and under nutrition rates. Use of the MUAC < 125 mm as an indicator of wasting resulted in higher estimates of wasting compared to W/H < or = -2 z scores, and seemed unsuitable as a screening test for wasting in this Zambian population.

Nutritional status and feeding patterns of rural preschool Zambian children living in different ecological areas

“…Data from another district in the same province, show similar rates of underweight and wasting (Gernaat, Dechering and Voorhoeve, 1996). However, in that study the prevalence of stunting in children below two years of age was surprisingly high in comparison with our study and showed an already high prevalence of stunting of 52% in the young age group of zero to six months.…”